Survey of Newspaper Production Flow for E-paper potx

Survey of Newspaper
Production Flow for E-paper




















JOHAN DANCKWARDT

Master’s Degree Project
Stockholm, Sweden 2005





TRITA-NA-E05160





Numerisk analys och datalogi Department of Numerical Analysis
KTH and Computer Science
100 44 Stockholm Royal Institute of Technology
SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden

JOHAN DANCKWARDT









TRITA-NA-E05160

Master’s Thesis in Publishing Technology (20 credits)
at the School of Mechanical Engineering
Royal Institute of Technology year 2005
Supervisor at Nada was Alex Jonsson
Examiner was Nils Enlund


Survey of Newspaper
Production Flow for E-paper




Survey of newspaper production flow for e-paper

Abstract
This Master’s Thesis presents the Master’s Project where a survey was performed regarding
production flows for a future newspaper product, the e-paper edition. The Master’s Project
was commissioned by the Swedish Newspaper Publisher’s Association (Tidningsutgivarna),
intended to perform a case study regarding a potential e-paper production flow at Sundsvalls
Tidning. The Swedish Newspaper Publisher’s Association together with the Royal Institute of
Technology, University of Halmstad and seven Swedish newspapers, among them Sundsvalls
Tidning, run the Swedish part of a European research and development project under the
ITEA label aiming at finding new ways of distributing and consuming the future newspaper.
This project is called DigiNews and aims to investigate the possibilities for creating a mobile
newsreader based on e-paper technology.

The Master’s Project performed a survey to secure what content management systems a

typical Scandinavian mid-sized newspaper (Sundsvalls Tidning) uses and how these systems,
both internal and external could also be part of a future e-paper production flow. Can these
content management systems and external content suppliers deliver content in suitable file
types so that a future e-paper management system could transform them into an e-paper
edition?

The survey was conducted by studying literature in the form of books, online articles and
through interviews with relevant persons. The Master’s project chose to interview employees
at Sundsvalls Tidning and content suppliers that contribute to the products at Sundsvalls
Tidning of today. The chosen employees at Sundsvalls Tidning were interviewed regarding
their area of expertise.

The survey showed that the content management systems are all capable of delivering suitable
file types. However, some systems can only deliver suitable file types after system
adjustments. Up till today there are several different file types delivered by the external
content suppliers. The interviews with the external content supplier’s shows that they are all
able to deliver their content in file types more suitable for the intended purpose. To get these
suitable file types it requires that Sundsvalls Tidning reaches an agreement with the different
suppliers, since the existing agreements probably do not cover other formats than the ones
used today.

When all content intended to shape the e-paper edition is available in suitable formats, an
e-paper management system is supposed to produce the product. Before such management
system can be developed, there are several issues to solve for the DigiNews project. What file
type should be used to display the finished e-paper product? The involved parties should
agree on what advertisement formats to use in the e-paper edition. If Sundsvalls Tidning and
the Swedish newspapers in general decide to develop an e-paper production system, it is my
opinion that it is important for them to create a system that produces a unique product. In a
news thirsting society of today I think it is important to create a product that offers the
customers something unique.

Undersökning av produktionsflöde för e-papper

Sammanfattning
Examensarbetet gick ut på att undersöka produktionsflöden för en framtida tidningsprodukt,
e-pappersupplagan. Uppdragsgivare till examensarbetet var Tidningsutgivarna och bestod i att
undersöka möjligheterna till ett framtida produktionsflöde för e-papper på Sundsvalls
Tidning. DigiNews är ett europeiskt forsknings- och utvecklingsprojekt tillhörande ITEA, de
arbetar kring att finna nya vägar att distribuera och konsumera framtidens dagstidning.
Tidningsutgivarna, Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan, Högskolan i Halmstad och sju svenska
dagstidningar, däribland Sundsvalls Tidning driver den svenska delen av DigiNews.
DigiNews i Sverige undersöker möjligheterna kring att ta fram en mobil läsplatta baserad på
e-pappersteknik, som man skall kunna konsumera framtidens dagstidning på.

På Sundsvalls Tidning genomfördes en undersökning där de interna och externa
innehållssystemen kartlades. Detta för att avgöra hur dessa skulle kunna utgöra en del av ett
framtida produktionsflöde för en e-pappersupplaga. Undersökningen utrönte om de interna
och externa innehållssystemen kan leverera lämpliga filtyper som ett framtida
hanteringssystem för e-papper skulle kunna ta till vara på.

För att söka svar på de frågor uppställda i problemformuleringen studerades diverse litteratur i
form av böcker och artiklar från databaser och Internet. Den stora delen i sökandet av
information bestod i utförandet av allehanda intervjuer, detta med anställda på Sundsvalls
Tidning och personer från de leverantörer av innehåll som Sundsvalls Tidning använder sig
av. De anställda på Sundsvalls Tidning intervjuades inom det ansvarsområde de representerar.

Resultaten visar att de innehållssystem Sundsvalls Tidning använder kan leverera lämpliga

filtyper. Dock kommer det krävas viss justering och utveckling av systemen för att de skall
kunna leverera dessa filtyper. I dagsläget levereras det externa innehållet till tidningen som
flertalet olika filtyper. Dock visade intervjuerna med de externa leverantörerna att det finns
goda möjligheter att mottaga innehållet i format bättre lämpade för ändamålet. Alla de externa
leverantörerna kan leverera sitt innehåll som XML eller som filtyper baserade på XML. I
dagsläget sitter förmodligen Sundsvalls Tidning på avtal med de externa leverantörerna där
inte leverans av dessa mer lämpliga filtyper ingår. Följer Sundsvalls Tidning detta
examensarbetes rekommendationer krävs då förmodligen att nya avtal knyts med de externa
innehållsleverantörerna.

När allt innehåll, text, bild och annonser finns tillgängligt som användbara filtyper, skall detta
sättas samman till en tidningsprodukt lämplig att visa på en e-pappersterminal. Detta skall
göras med ett hanteringssystem för e-papper. Innan ett sådant hanteringssystem kan
konstrueras finns det diverse frågor som måste lösas. Svenska DigiNews måste bestämma hur
de framtida e-pappersupplagorna skall presenteras och i vilket format. Dessutom bör en
överenskommelse nås med inblandade parter angående format på annonser. Detta för att
undvika framtida problem där olika format och filtyper används såsom det idag är på Internet.
Om Sundsvalls Tidning tillsammans med andra svenska dagstidningar bestämmer sig för att
satsa på en e-pappersupplaga, kan det vara av vikt att denna nya produkt är unik. I dagens
nyhetstörstande och krävande samhälle är det viktigt att erbjuda en unik produkt som kan
erbjuda mervärde för läsaren.



Acknowledgements

This Master’s Project has been performed within the specialisation Publishing Technology at
KTH School of Computer Science and Communication, Royal Institute of Technology.

I want to thank all persons that have contributed to my Master’s Project. Especially, I want to

show my gratitude to my supervisor at the KTH School of Computer Science and
Communication, Tech. Dr Alex Jonsson. Other parties that I want to thank are Sundsvalls
Tidning, the interviewees and the Swedish Newspaper Publishers Association.

Finally I want to thank my mother, sister and girlfriend for their support during the work of
the Master’s Project. Without my mothers support this Master’s Project would not have been
finished.


Johan Danckwardt

Stockholm September 2005





Table of contents

1 INTRODUCTION 1
1.1

B
ACKGROUND
1
1.2

P
ROBLEM DEFINITION
2

1.2.1 Editorial system 3
1.2.2 Advertising system 4
1.2.3 Subscription system 4
1.3

P
URPOSE AND AIM
4
1.4

D
ELIMITATIONS
5
2 METHOD 6
2.1

C
HOICE OF METHOD
6
2.2

Q
UALITATIVE INTERVIEWS
6
2.2.1 Documentation 6
2.3

R
ELIABILITY
7

2.4

V
ALIDITY
7
2.5

L
ITERATURE
S
TUDY
7
2.5.1 Key words 7
2.5.2 Relevant literature 7
2.6

P
ROPOSED INTERVIEWEES
8
3 THEORY 9
3.1

E
DITORIAL WORKFLOW
9
3.1.1 Editorial content production flow 10
3.1.2 Subscription system 10
3.2

E

DITORIAL PARTS AT
S
UNDSVALLS
T
IDNING
11
3.3

W
ORKFLOW FOR THE WEB
11
3.4

P
RODUCTION FLOW AT
S
UNDSVALLS
T
IDNING
12
3.4.1 Description of systems and software 12
3.4.1.1 Internal systems 13
3.4.1.2 External systems and content suppliers 14
3.4.2 Workflow order at Sundsvalls Tidning 16
3.4.2.1 Advertisement and planning 16
3.4.2.2 Editorial work 17
3.4.2.3 Imposition and printing 17
3.4.2.4 Web based publishing and other publishing techniques 18
4 RESULTS OF SYSTEM SURVEY 19
4.1

I
NTERVIEWEES
19
4.2

C
ONTENT
S
YSTEMS AND FILE TYPES
19
4.3

I
NTERNAL SYSTEMS AND CONTENT CAPABILITIES
21
4.3.1 Newspilot 21
4.3.2 Pickup 22
4.3.3 MPress 22
4.3.4 PASSAD 23
4.3.5 iPlay 23
4.3.6 IPM Workflow Server 23
4.3.7 Xlibris 23
4.3.8 Parallel Publishing Management System 24
4.3.9 Open AdStream 24
4.4

E
XTERNAL SYSTEMS AND CONTENT CAPABILITIES
24

4.4.1 TT 24
4.4.2 TT Spektra 24
4.4.3 SMHI 24
4.4.4 VLT Futurum 25
4.4.5 Payex 25


5 ANALYSIS 26
5.1.

I
NTERESTING PARTS OF EXISTING PRODUCTION FLOW
26
5.2

P
ROPOSAL FOR AN E
-
PAPER PRODUCTION FLOW
27
5.2.1 Handling subscribers and single copies 28
5.2.2 Templates 28
5.2.3 Advertising 29
5.2.4 Editorial content 30
5.2.5 Image workflow 31
5.2.6 External content 31
5.3

E-
PAPER PRODUCTION ENGINE

31
5.3.1 Production and storage 32
5.3.2 E-paper generator 32
6 DISCUSSION 33
6.1

O
N DEMAND OR FIXED EDITIONS
? 33
6.2

P
ERSONALIZED EDITIONS AND GEOGRAPHICAL EDITIONS
33
6.3

I
MPORTANCE OF A UNIQUE NEWSPAPER EDITION
33
7 CONCLUSIONS 35
7.1

I
NTERNAL SYSTEMS
35
7.2

E
XTERNAL CONTENT AND EXTERNAL SUPPLIERS
35

7.3

N
EWSPAPER ORGANISATION
35
7.4

B
LOCKING PARAMETERS
36
8 RECOMMENDED CONTINUED WORK 37
8.1

I
NTERNAL SYSTEMS AND ORGANIZATION
37
8.2

D
ESIRED NEW FORMATS OF EXTERNAL CONTENT
37
8.3

C
USTOMER EXAMINATION AND FOCUS GROUPS
38
8.4

F
ORMAT AND FILE TYPE

38
9 REFERENCES 39
10 DICTIONARY 44
APPENDIX 45


Figure index

Figure 1, Illustration of electronic ink [E-ink, 2002] 2
Figure 2, Intended area inside red rectangle 5
Figure 3, Editorial workflow [Sabelström Möller, 2001] 9
Figure 4, Flow chart of production flow at Sundsvalls Tidning, [Kjellin, 2005; Eklund, 2005; Söderlund,
2005; Boström, 2005; Teir, 2005; Lindström, 2005; Rehn et Al, 2004; Welander, 2005] 12
Figure 5, Systems that could be part of a future e-paper workflow. 26
Figure 6, Flowchart of a proposed e-paper production flow. 27
Figure 7, Examples of e-paper template design, Component positions taken from Svenåke Boströms
e-paper design proposal, version 12. 28
Figure 8, Editorial content storage and file types 30



Table index



Table 1, Key words and databases 7
Table 2, Proposed interviewees 8
Table 3, Systems used by Sundsvalls Tidning [Rehn, 2004; Kjellin, 2005; Teir, 2005; Eklund, 2005] . 11
Table 4, Examples of placement codes at Sundsvalls Tidning [Lidin, 2005] 22
Table 5, Conceivable advertisement sizes 29

Johan Danckwardt
Survey of newspaper production flow for e-paper 1 Introduction


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1 Introduction
This chapter will describe the background of this Master’s Thesis, and why it is regarded as
an important survey for the continuous work with the e-paper project DigiNews.
1.1 Background
DigiNews is a European research and development project under the ITEA label aiming at
finding new ways of distributing and consuming the future newspaper. The aim is to
investigate the possibilities for creating a mobile newsreader based on e-paper technology.
The Swedish Newspaper Publisher’s Association is responsible for managing the Swedish
part of the project among with the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and University
of Halmstad [DigiNews, 2004].

The e-paper technology offers a display with optical reflectivity and contrast characteristics
similar to ordinary paper. An ordinary paper is flexible, lightweight and shows text and
picture with reasonably high resolution and contrast. One of the drawbacks with ordinary
paper is that once it has been printed, the content cannot be altered. The e-paper product is
also flexible, shows text and images with high resolution and contrast (170 dpi) and its
content can be reloaded over and over [Ritter, 2003].

The e-paper terminal is based on the e-paper technology and comes in several different
layouts. Some of the e-paper terminals come in a similar design as a PDA with a screen size
as an A5 sized paper, with a rigid, fixed form factor. The final target platform in mind for the
DigiNews project it not as similar to a PDA, but rather one with a flexible screen and which is
rolled up inside the hardware unit between uses. The e-paper terminal is supposed to be used

as a hand held newsreader where you can read an electronic edition of the newspaper, books,
magazines et cetera.

The e-paper terminals solution consists of printed flexible electronic circuits and connected to
substrate with ink (E-ink). The electronic ink consists of tiny capsules which react to
electronic charges. Depending of if the charge is positive or negative, short or long, the
capsule attracts various amounts of either dark or light pigment particles. The E-ink is molded
into a plastic film that is laminated onto a layer of circuitry [E-ink, 202]. The circuitry dictates
the patterns created on-screen (microchips) [Appelgren, Sabelström Möller and Nordqvist,
2004].

Johan Danckwardt
Survey of newspaper production flow for e-paper 1 Introduction


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Figure 1, Illustration of electronic ink [E-ink, 2002]

A big benefit with the e-paper is that power consumption to operate it is very low. Once an
image or text is loaded, it no longer requires use of electric power. If the battery of an e-paper
terminal would run out while reading a page, it would not affect the display. Rather, the
image would stay the same even without any power supply, degrading only after being idle
for several hours [E-ink Key Benefits, 2002]. At the moment there are e-paper terminals
available in black and white (2-bit greyscale) for the public, but there are research efforts
carried out to bring e-paper to the market that can display colour.

The distribution of an e-paper edition, from the editorial to an e-paper terminal has not yet
been solved. The DigiNews project is looking at several different techniques of delivery.
Martin Klarström states in his Master’s thesis that there are several interesting techniques that

could be used to such system of delivery. For the business traveller, techniques like WLAN or
UMTS would be applicable when these techniques have both local and global spread, high
transferring speed and the techniques are or will be available at the places that a business
traveller visits. It is more difficult to find a technique to use outside the urban areas because
that none of the systems has a full 100% coverage of the country.

In the DigiNews project, one idea is that the e-paper terminal is not going to be online
continuously. The consumer will download the newspaper’s e-paper edition whenever he or
she desires, for offline viewing [Nordqvist and Sabelström Möller, 2005]. However there are
many issues to solve before reaching a complete e-paper product intended to substitute other
editions of a daily newspaper.

1.2 Problem definition
Commissioned by the Swedish Newspaper Publisher’s Association this master’s project
studied the content production flow for e-paper at a Swedish newspaper. In this case, the
chosen newspaper for the study was Sundsvalls Tidning. What can be done with the existing
publishing systems and what is needed, in order to produce a product ready to be displayed on
an e-paper terminal? The first part of the Master’s project studied the conditions of Sundsvalls
Tidning and found out what complementary tools were needed to create a working production
flow. If time was given, the latter part of this master’s project would study the adaptiveness
for new media channels of several different brands of content systems in order to form a
Johan Danckwardt
Survey of newspaper production flow for e-paper 1 Introduction


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general recommendation for Swedish newspapers. Is there a substantial difference between
the different business leading advertising systems, editorial systems and subscription
systems?

Comprehensive questions, central to this study:
 How should the production flow be designed in order to create a product suitable for an
e-paper terminal?
 What is Sundsvalls Tidning’s vision regarding the production flow and design for a future
e-paper product?
 How should the organisation at Sundsvalls Tidning be designed in regards to the editorial
flow, advertisement flow and image flow?
 How should an optimized organisation be tailored regarding the editorial flow,
advertisement flow and picture flow in the current circumstances at the Swedish
newspapers?
 What parts of the production flow should be automated? Should it be fully automated?
What tasks are suitable to be automated?
 What are the plans for Sundsvalls Tidning and how will these parameters affect an
automated production flow?
 Should the production flow be updated continuously or should there be a set number of
editions per day? The expression on demand is nowadays used in several different
situations, for example Print-On-Demand and Video-On-Demand [Lotsson, 2001]. In this
situation of an on demand newspaper, it implies that whenever the consumer chooses to
read his edition of the requested newspaper he downloads an edition with the latest news.
This edition would be updated continuously around the clock depending of what happens
in the world.


 Should the e-paper system use static or dynamic templates? Is it possible to use templates
and what do Sundsvalls Tidning consider about using templates? I.e. each page would
have an identical layout?
 What format is suitable for the e-paper depending on the desired flexibility and
interactivity?
1.2.1 Editorial system
Today there are several editorial systems on the market [Fahlström, 2004]. According to

Nordiska Tidningsregistret there are well over twenty different suppliers of editorial systems
in Sweden. The most common system in use is Wilkinson Scoop. Because of the multitude of
systems, it is difficult to develop one easy solution on how to design a complete production
flow for producing an e-paper product. The Master’s project primary investigated what can be
done with the editorial system (content management system) already in use at Sundsvalls
Tidning. In addition this Master’s thesis intended to compare the editorial system at
Sundsvalls Tidning to other editorial systems on the market.

Questions to be answered:
 What can be done with the existing editorial system?
 What new tools, if needed are necessary to extend the existing editorial system, in order to
create a well functioning production flow for an e-paper publishing channel?
 What underlying standards are used in the editorial system when handling the articles and
their content? Are they based on XML?
Johan Danckwardt
Survey of newspaper production flow for e-paper 1 Introduction


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 Is the image flow separated from the text flow in the editorial system? If so, how are these
two components linked together?

1.2.2 Advertising system
Today there are three major suppliers of advertising systems in Sweden. The suppliers are
Tieto Enator, Mactive and Atex [Rehn, J., 2004]. If the production flow is going to be
automated the advertising system must be able to handle new formats for advertisement.

Questions to be answered:
 Is the advertising system prepared to handle new advertisement formats?
 Which formats are proposed to be used in an e-paper context?

 What is required from of the advertising system, in order to handle new formats?
 What new tools, if needed, are necessary together with the existing advertising system to
create a well functioning production flow towards an e-paper product?

1.2.3 Subscription system
If the Swedish newspapers have well organized systems for managing subscribers, it may be
possible to produce personalized editions of the e-paper. Today, several Swedish newspapers
have different editions depending of where you live in the country. If geographical editioning
is going to work in an e-paper product, it will create demands on the subscriber management
system to be flexible and also requires the possibility to track various parameters relating on
each customer. If the flexibility of today’s subscription systems live up to these demands, it
may also be possible for the advertisers to reach their desired target groups with personalized
advertising.

1.3 Purpose and aim
The purpose of this Master’s project was to survey the future production flow of e-paper at
Swedish newspapers. The primary aim was to survey the present workflow at Sundsvalls
Tidning and examine the different systems supporting the production flow. On the basis of the
survey, the master’s project forms a recommendation of what is needed to be done in order to
create an automated production flow suitable for Sundsvalls Tidnings editorial department.
The recommendation is intended for the Swedish newspapers with an interest to produce an
e-paper edition. If time was given the Master’s project would also look at other content
management and advertising systems, i.e. their capabilities compared to the systems
Sundsvalls Tidning uses. Hopefully other Swedish newspapers can use these
recommendations as guidance in their future work with an e-paper production flow, thereby
reducing their development costs of similar system.

For Sundsvalls Tidning, the idea of maximising the level of automation in the production flow
is to avoid a demand of additional personnel [Bodström, 2005]. The production workflow will
not be fully automated however because of willingness for reviewing the content of the

e-paper prior to distribution. Due to the fact that the editor at chief at a Swedish newspaper is
the legally responsible publisher, all the publishing channels are reviewed to prevent the
occurrence of faulty or otherwise unsuitable information [Tidningsutgivarna, 2005].

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Survey of newspaper production flow for e-paper 1 Introduction


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1.4 Delimitations
The intended area of this Master’s project is to examine what happens internally at the
newspaper. The objective was to investigate the e-paper production flow, from end-to-end of
production. The end of the e-paper production flow is defined as when the e-paper edition is
finished, but before actually delivered to the consumer. Everything external, except the
incorporation of third party news content, is not handled in this thesis. External newspaper
content could be weather reports, stock quotations or sport results.

Figure 2, Intended area inside red rectangle
Johan Danckwardt
Survey of newspaper production flow for e-paper 2 Method


6
2 Method
2.1 Choice of method
This Master’s project is based on general knowledge of the newspaper business. To collect
the accurate data and information to the Master’s project, it depended on interviews with
people with knowledge in the intended area. Because of the decision on making a few
interviews the method of quantitative interviews was rejected. Therefore the decision was to
make a qualitative survey.

A survey of the different systems and present production flow was carried out. The purpose of
the survey was decide what the opportunities are offered by the different systems are and how
they are linked together.
2.2 Qualitative interviews
A qualitative interview is when you seek a pattern in the intended subject [Trost, 2005]. The
Master’s project intended to show a possible production flow for e-paper manly on one
Swedish newspaper and the interviews were at start focused on employees with knowledge in
their profession. The main areas of interest were at a start people with knowledge in
advertising and advertising system, editorial system (content system) and subscription system.
When the interviews with people at the newspaper were finished, the Master’s project
intended to interview suppliers of the systems to Sundsvalls Tidning. To gain a more general
understanding, the aim was to interview suppliers of similar systems to the ones at Sundsvalls
Tidning.

The interviews were informal and focused. The decision to use informal interviews was to
create a conversation on the intended subject. When interviews were held with specialists in
the different systems at the newspaper or the suppliers of systems, the interviews were
focused on the usage, functionality and possibilities of the system in question. The interviews
did not follow a manuscript to the letter because of the difficulty to predict sequential
questions.
2.2.1 Documentation
When performing the interviews, documentation was carried out in the form of a dictaphone
or by taking notes. The decision of what documentation method to use depended on whether
there was any recording equipment accessible.

The positive side of using recording equipment is that you can listen to the interview
repeatedly and you can concentrate on the questions without taking any notes during the
interview. The downsides if recording the interviews is that it takes a lot of time to listen to
the recordings and it can be hard to review in search of a specific detail. You also lose the

ability to see facial expressions [Trost, 2005]. You could use video recording to pick up facial
expressions but like the usage of a dictaphone this method demands a lot of time, probably
more when you will try to pick up the facial expressions afterwards. The interviewees were
informed of that the interview is going to be recorded and they are asked to give their
approval. If the interviewee did not approve the recording, the interviewer was forced to take
notes.

If the interviewer did not have access to any recording equipment the interviewer was forced
to take notes. The downside by taking notes is that it can be hard to get all the important
Johan Danckwardt
Survey of newspaper production flow for e-paper 2 Method


7
information and it can be hard to get a desired interaction flow during the interview. If the
interviewer does not take notes continuously during the interview, the interviewee can
become suspicious of when the interviewer chooses to take notes or not. In such situation it is
possible that the interviewee thinks that he or she said something wrong or uninteresting
[Trost, 2005].

2.3 Reliability
Reliability is a measurement to which extent an instrument or an approach gives the same
result independent on which point in time under the same circumstances [Bell, 2000].
Because of that Sundsvalls Tidning is a part of the DigiNews project it is in their interest that
the survey performed by this Master’s project is correct. That’s why the interviews must be
seen as reliable. The reliability concern the situation of today and the development of content
systems, advertising systems and subscription systems is hard to predict. It is hard to tell if the
results will be the same in the future. It is impossible to tell where the development of
publishing systems will take us in the next five years. A demand from Tidningsutgivarna is
that the knowledge from this master’s project shall be applicable for three years.

2.4 Validity
Validity is a measurement of if a certain line of questioning actually measures or describes
what you want it to do [Bell, 2000]. The validity of this Master’s project is harder to predict
than its reliability. For example when interviewing a person on his area of expertise, it is
possible that this person has an incorrect answer. For a person without this expertise the
answer might sound reasonable and the information might be used in the continuous work. An
error like this could have effects on the continued work. The only way to prevent these types
of errors is to double check the answers when possible. This applies to other sources as well.
2.5 Literature Study
This section presents how the relevant literature was found and what other sources of
information that is intended to be used.
2.5.1 Key words
To find relevant literature to this Master’s project the following keywords where selected
when searching in databases and search engines.

Key words Database Used / Type of media
e-paper
AND e-ink
Compendex 1, full text
e-paper

Compendex 2, owner Ifra, received by the
Swedish newspaper
publisher’s association

On demand Ebrary 1, e-book
Report AND writing AND
scientific
Ebrary 1, e-book about scientific
reports

Kvalitativa AND intervjuer KTHB’s catalogue (library of the
Royal Institute of Technology)
1, book
Table 1, Key words and databases
2.5.2 Relevant literature
Since the research of e-paper on newspapers is a relative new there is just a minor quantity of
relevant literature and articles. The tutors at the Swedish Newspaper Publisher’s Association
Johan Danckwardt
Survey of newspaper production flow for e-paper 2 Method


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and Royal Institute of Technology have assisted with project reports from the DigiNews
project, along with articles and reports from IFRA and useful links to relevant web pages.

2.6 Proposed interviewees
Company Activity Position
Head of market and business department
Managing Director
Editor at chief
Responsible of content system
Quality development
Head of web department
Head of information technology department
Advertising system specialist
Sundsvalls Tidning
(ST)
Newspaper
Subscription system specialist
Technician Infomaker Supplier of ST’s two content

systems
Technician
Technician Tieto Enator Supplier of advertising
system (ST) and subscription
system
Technician
Newspapers Newspaper Experience of multi channel publishing
Suppliers Suppliers of subscription
systems
Technicians
Table 2, Proposed interviewees
The possible interviewees at Sundsvalls Tidning were suggested by Svenåke Boström the
Quality Development Manager. Svenåke Boström is a member of the Swedish DigiNews
project group. Other possible interviews was proposed by the supervisor Tech. Dr. Alex
Jonsson or found by collecting statistics of which from the leading suppliers of newspaper
production systems. The statistics are collected from Nordiska tidningsregistret 2004 [Rehn,
2004].


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Survey of newspaper production flow for e-paper 3 Theory


9
3 Theory
This chapter describes how the present production systems function today and what role the
different systems have in the production flow.
3.1 Editorial workflow
To create a functioning production flow for an e-paper edition there must be a well developed
editorial workflow as a foundation. If there would not be a functioning editorial workflow,

there would not be any articles or images for building a new channel of publishing.


Figure 3, Editorial workflow [Sabelström Möller, 2001]

The flowchart above describes how the editorial content is produced at a newspaper. The
external content in Figure 1 are in the case of Sundsvalls Tidning as follows, weather reports,
domestic and international news, television charts as well as stock quotations. The external
content is delivered electronically in several different file formats, e.g. open Quark Xpress
documents, XML-files and TIFF images [Kjellin, 2005].

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3.1.1 Editorial content production flow
The editorial content production system at a newspaper usually consists of one main system
and several subsystems. The task of the main system is to collect and put together all the
different content and the subsystems have different tasks like storage of images, storage of
advertisement and delivery of sport results [Jonsson, 2005]. It is not common for a Swedish
newspaper to use only one manufacturer for all the different systems [Rehn et Al., 2004].

Text editor
In the case of Sundsvalls Tidning, the text editor divides the headline, preamble and text and
the content is written directly into the system by the reporters [Eklund, 2005]. Some systems
use plug-ins as text editors such as Microsoft Word [Jonsson, 2005]. If the texts is brought by
an external source as a news bureau it could be delivered e.g. as XML or open Quark Xpress
or InDesign documents. The television chart and stock quotations are always delivered by
external sources to Sundsvalls Tidning [Kjellin, 2005].

Image flow
Usually the images published in the newspaper and on the web are imported to the main
content system via an image system. Today Sundsvalls Tidning uses two different systems,
Pickup as a archive for older images and Newspilot for new images [Eklund, 2005]. As in the
case with editorial texts the image system can import images from external image bureaus.

Advertising systems
Today there are three manufacturers of advertising systems used in Sweden, Teito Enator’s
MPress, Mactive’s Adbase and ATex [Rehn, 2004]. The advertising systems consist of a
database containing information about the advertisements, a folder structure with the actual
advertisements, a planning tool and a booking mechanism. Placing the advertisements is the
first step in creating the layout of a newspaper. The advertisements are placed on the planned
pages of the newspaper and then sent of to the editorial department who place the editorial
content, such as the images and texts [Jonsson, 2005, Kjellin, 2005].

3.1.2 Subscription system
Compared to the suppliers of advertising systems, there are several suppliers of subscription
systems at the Swedish market today. According to Nordiska tidningsregistret [Rehn, 2004]
the three main suppliers are KANAL-DATA, Leissner Data and Tieto Enator. These are just
the main suppliers among several others. Worth considering is that the data in Nordiska
tidningsregistret [Rehn, 2004] is insufficient because of that several newspapers did not report
of what system they are using. A number of newspapers stated that they have developed their
own subscription system.

Sundsvalls Tidning uses the supplier PRESSsystem’s subscription system PASSAD [Teir,
2005]. PASSAD handles subscribers, single copies, distribution and sales of newspapers in
the same system [PRESSsystem, 2005]. The PASSAD system will be an important part of a
future e-paper production flow at Sundsvalls Tidning. If Sundsvalls Tidning decides on the
possibility for subscribers to subscribe on personalized e-paper editions the PASSAD system

will be the system to handle customer information.


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3.2 Editorial parts at Sundsvalls Tidning
The following systems are used by Sundsvalls Tidning and will probably be an important part
of a future e-paper system.

Task Manufacturer System name
Content system Infomaker Newspilot
Text editor Infomaker Newspilot
Image system and archive Infomaker Newspilot, Pickup
Advertising system Tieto Enator MPress
Video Infomaker Newspilot
Subscription and delivery system PRESSsystem PASSAD
Editing and design Adobe InDesign
Sport results Infomaker iPlay
Web system Sundsvalls Tidning -
System getting external content
Task Supplier
Weather reports SMHI
Stock quotations VLT Futurum
Television chart TT Spektra
Domestic and international news TT & TT Spektra
Table 3, Systems used by Sundsvalls Tidning [Rehn, 2004; Kjellin, 2005; Teir, 2005; Eklund, 2005]
3.3 Workflow for the web

The content on a newspapers webpage is often reused content from the printed edition
together with used content. The editors responsible for the webpage can use the content as
soon as the newspaper has been sent to the printing house. The texts and images are
customized for the newspapers webpage so it will fit in the online templates [Jonsson, 2005].

When a reporter at Sundsvalls Tidning writes his or her article in the Newspilot editorial
content system he or she has two choices to make: Either to publish the article at once or to
publish the article at the same time as the printed edition reaches the subscribers. The
Newspilot content system generates an online adapted XML-file. From this XML-file the web
management system creates an online article [Lindström, 2005]. Therefore the online edition
uses exactly the same material as the printed edition at Sundsvalls Tidning.

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Survey of newspaper production flow for e-paper 3 Theory


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3.4 Production flow at Sundsvalls Tidning


Figure 4, Flow chart of production flow at Sundsvalls Tidning, [Kjellin, 2005; Eklund, 2005; Söderlund,
2005; Boström, 2005; Teir, 2005; Lindström, 2005; Rehn et Al, 2004; Welander, 2005]
3.4.1 Description of systems and software
The production flow at Sundsvalls Tidning, just like most newspaper publishing companies, is
supported by several systems and databases from different suppliers. This section describes
the various systems in use, representing the production flow at Sundsvalls Tidning.

Johan Danckwardt
Survey of newspaper production flow for e-paper 3 Theory

13
3.4.1.1 Internal systems

Newspilot
Newspilot is an editorial system able to handle parallel publishing towards several different
media types, e.g. text, motion pictures and audio. The system is not proprietary towards any
specific layout software, advertising system or platform [Newspilot, 2003].

The Newspilot system consists of a planning tool, text editor, parallel publishing tool, image
editing, auto repro, tracking device and archiving. From the text editor, you decide where the
article should be published. The articles can be used through any number the publishing
channels of choice without any additional work. The planning tool can be used not only to
plan the work, but also to keep track of what persons are working with which articles at any
given time, and when to publish the articles or other media formats [Newspilot, 2001].

Newspilot has a tracking system for supervising the entire publishing process of a newspaper
or magazine. This system can for example track who is working with what page in the layout
stage. This makes it impossible for two persons to work with the same page at the same time
[Kjellin, 2005].

Pickup
Pickup is supplied by Infomaker. Pickup is a system for handling production images, archive
images, logotypes, other artwork and advertisements [Pickup, 2004]. The Pickup system that
Sundsvalls Tidning uses is deployed as an image archive for older and new images [Eklund,
2005].

MPress
Tieto Enator Media Systems AB is the supplier of the systems MPress Annons, MPress
Redaktion and MPress Upplaga. These systems can be used individually or as a connected

system where all the MPress parts are integrated with each other [Rehn, J. et Al., 2004].
Sundsvalls Tidning uses the advertising system MPress Annons [Söderlund, 2005]

Adobe InDesign
InDesign is a layout and design software supplied by Adobe. At the editorial department,
InDesign is used for creating the layout and manage the typography of the newspaper pages
[InDesign, 2005].

Adobe Acrobat Distiller
This software from Adobe makes it possible to generate PDF from Post Script files. The
software makes it easier to integrate Adobe PDF in document flows [Distiller, 2005].

PASSAD
PASSAD is a system for handling subscription, single copies, distribution and sales. The
system is supplied by PRESSsystem [PRESSsystem, 2005].

Resizing images
Recently Sundsvalls Tidning took a new system into use, especially for resizing and
resampling images intended for export to the web edition. The new system intended for
resizing the images is called IPM Workflow Server and is supplied by Binuscan [Kjellin,
2005].

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Archive
Today, Sundsvalls Tidning uses the archive system called Xlibris from the supplier
Infomaker. In the nearby future Sundsvalls Tidning will launch their new Multi Media

Archive also supplied by Infomaker. The Multi Media Archive is part of the Newspilot
system [Kjellin, 2005].

Management System for parallel publishing
To publish the newspaper articles on the web Sundsvalls Tidning relies on a management
system which is developed in-house. The system is able to publish content in several different
channels [Welander, 2005].

Advertising system intended for the web
Sundsvalls Tidning uses two separate advertising systems intended for the web. The first is a
system that makes it possible to edit code directly on the web pages. The second and main
advertising system is Open AdStream. This system is a stand-alone solution and has no
connections to MPress. Open AdStream is supplied by 24-7 Real Media [Welander, 2005].

iPlay
iPlay is a software that helps the newspaper to keep track of sport results and tables. The
software is a web based multi-user system. iPlay allows several newspapers to share the same
system to facilitate the work of adding results into the system [iPlay, 2002].

The iPlay system can export the tables to either Quark Xpress or to Adobe InDesign files. The
system uses predefined typographed templates to ensure that the tables have the same format
as the pages in the newspaper [iPlay, 2002]. Both the traditional newspaper and the web
department use iPlay to publish the sport results [Welander, 2005; Eklund, 2005].

3.4.1.2 External systems and content suppliers
The Swedish newspapers are depending on several external content suppliers to the regular
paper-based newspaper and the web edition. The content that is imported from external
suppliers typically consists of domestic and international news, press items, stock quotations,
sport results, weather reports, television and radio charts [Kjellin, 2005]

TT and TT-Spektra
Tidningarnas Telegrambyrå (TT) is a Swedish news agency cooperatively owned by all the
major Swedish newspapers. The domestic material is produced by TT them selves and the
international news are mostly produced by other news agencies in other countries [Hadenius,
Weibull, 1999].

TT supplies an exhaustive news service with domestic and international news to the Swedish
newspapers. The news service contains for example articles, background articles, facts, video
clips and sport results. TT covers all the conceivable areas such as international and domestic
news, economy, sports and science. TT also supplies an online service with news content
intended for the web. TT distributes their news service via satellite in the format TTNITF. or
on a customer’s news service webpage. The online news service gives the newspapers access
to all of the articles published by TT. Apart from ordinary articles the news service offers
analysis, info boxes and sport results et cetera [TT
1
, 2005]. After the end of this year (2005)
TT will be able to distribute their services via FTP (File Transfer Protocol) [Pilhage,
Andersson, Henriksen, 2005].
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TT Spektra is a subsidiary to TT. TT Spektra’s main task is to act as a complement to TT’s
news services. TT Spektra offers a online news service that makes all of their produced
content accessible to their customers.[Hadenius, Weibull, 1999]. TT Spektra produces Pre-
fabricated newspaper pages, television charts, feature material and finished supplements to the
Swedish newspapers. TT Spektra covers the areas of television (both articles and television
charts), sports & gambling, trotting, polls and video clips. At the time of big events, for
example concerts, TT Spektra produces finished concert supplements to their customers. TT

Spektra also offers a illustration service, where articles are accompanied by images and
graphics upon request [Pilhage, Andersson, Henriksen, 2005].

The content delivered by TT Spektra is formatted as raw text or in a proprietary tagged
information structure with corresponding metadata. By the autumn of 2005, TT Spektra
expects that it will be possible to deliver the files in XML format.

SMHI
Sveriges Meteorologiska och Hydrologiska Institut is a government funded national authority
in the field of metrological and hydrological studies. SMHI’s comprises of supplying reports
on weather forecasts and water conditions [SMHI, 2005]. SMHI supply Swedish newspapers
with weather reports both for the printed newspaper editions and for the newspapers webpage.
The newspapers decide themselves in what formats they wish to receive their forecasts and
weather charts. The most common file formats to the paper based edition is as a PDF or EPS.
For the web-based edition, there are several formats that are in use, e.g. XML and ECRM-
script (formally java-script) in combination. SMHI prefers to deliver their content via FTP but
the way of delivery is also up to the customer to decide [Nordqvist (SMHI), 2005].

VLT Futurum
VLT Futurum supplies Sundsvalls Tidning with the stock quotations. The stock quotations are
delivered as finished pages to Sundsvalls Tidning in the format of PDF [Edlund, 2005].

APMM
APMM (Arena Partners Mobile Manager) is a gateway for SMS and MMS services supplied
by Arena Partner. In Sweden, the product is represented by a company called Leanback. You
can get various text content sent to you by SMS for a small fee at Sundsvalls Tidning’s
website. For example you can get the latest sport results and news concerning the local
football team, the latest news headlines or the weather forecasts for a given area. Other mobile
services available at Sundsvalls Tidning’s webpage [www.st.nu] are on-line purchases of ring
signals, logotypes and images [ST

2
, 2005; APMM, 2005].

Payex
Payex is a payment service supplied by Wallit AB. Sundsvalls Tidning uses Payex to several
services on their webpage, for example when buying a classified advertisement [Molin,
2005].

External Joint Advertising
The advertising flow on both the traditional paper based newspaper and on Sundsvalls
Tidnings webpage, is partly fed by external joint advertising companies. Joint advertising
intended for the paper-based newspaper comes from for example FLT or Media
Industrikusten. Media Industrikusten only advertises in newspapers from the northern parts of
Sweden [Dagspress, 2005].

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At Sundsvalls Tidnings webpage there is some joint advertising occurring. Tidningsnätet is a
joint advertising package intended for internet advertising and their advertisements occur at
Sundsvalls Tidnings webpage, www.st.nu [Tidningsnätet, 2005].
3.4.2 Workflow order at Sundsvalls Tidning
When producing a newspaper, there is a certain working order in the production sequence. In
this section, I will describe the production flow at Sundsvalls Tidning for all their current
publishing channels.
3.4.2.1 Advertisement and planning
The advertising stands for the major part of the revenues at most Swedish newspapers.
Without advertisements it would be difficult or impossible to produce and run a newspaper.

The advertisement sales staff at the newspaper handles the first step in the production flow of
producing a newspaper. The advertisement department is roughly speaking divided into three
parts, the sales staff, the production staff and the private advertisement staff. The newspaper
also produces the actual advertisement for many of their customers, e.g. car dealerships.

The advertising sales staff sells predefined spaces or so called modules in the newspaper. The
different spaces could for example be a full page, a centrespread or a quarter page. The
module system is based on that the page is divided into a table. The price is set depending on
how many rows and columns you want for your advertisement [VLT, 2005]. Sundsvalls
Tidning uses the module system [ST
1
, 2005]. When an advertiser buys an advertisement space
in the newspaper, the sales staff states in the advertising system what place in the newspaper
the advertisement should appear, what date it should be published and more additional data.
To state in what section of the newspaper the advertisement is going to be placed the
newspaper uses placement codes. The placement codes are normally a collection of
characters. The characters together tell us where the advertisement is going to be placed.
Sundsvalls Tidning uses up to ten characters for their placement codes [Lidin, 2005].

The advertisement meta information is stored in a database of the advertising system. The
actual advertisement is rather stored as a PDF and as an EPS in a directory file structure. The
folder structure is shared depending on what order ID the advertisement has. The
advertisements filename is the same as the order ID stored in the advertisement information in
the advertising system. The major customers have their own folders where their
advertisements are stored [Söderlund, 2005]. When it comes to the classifieds the
advertisement information is stored the same way, only with less information about the
customer.

The private advertisement staff produces the classifieds, the obituary notices and the family

advertisements. To place a classified, obituary notice or a family advertisement there are two
ways to go. All the three categories are possible to advertise though visiting the newspapers
private advertisement desk. At the desk the customer state what sort of advertisement he or
she want and what it should contain. Then the private advertisement staff produces the
advertisement and it is stored in the advertising system. When the advertisement is finished it
follows the same way in the advertising system as the business related advertisements.

The other way to place a private advertisement at Sundsvalls Tidning is to visit their website.
This way of placing an advertisement only concerns the buy and sells classifieds. When you
have stated what the advertisement will contain at the website, the advertisement is delivered
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via ftp through a hidden production system to the newspaper where the advertising system
picks it up and places it at the right place in the folder structure. Along with the PDF version
of the advertisement there is a AdConnexion file. The AdConnexion file tells the advertising
system what type of advertisement it is, when to publish it, where to place it in the newspaper
and other data concerning billing and customer information et cetera [Gustavsson, 2005].

When booking a classified advertisement at Sundsvalls Tidning you go through the Lokus
portal. Lokus is a cooperative between about 50 Swedish newspapers. At the Lokus portal the
newspapers classified advertisements are published and made searchable. Lokus has a
booking mechanism which several of the 50 newspapers use to offer web booking to their
customers [Lokus, 2005].

When the deadline has passed and the advertisements are placed on the intended pages
through the advertising system MPress’s booking and planning tool, the pages are sent to the
editorial department for continued work.

3.4.2.2 Editorial work
At the same time that the advertisement department sells and produces advertisements, the
editorial department produces the articles and images. When a reporter and photographer at
Sundsvalls Tidning get back from a job, they receive a template in the Newspilot system. In
the template the reporter writes his story and the photographer drag and drops the images he
or she wants to use. The reporter writes the headline, main text, and the caption of each
image. The caption of the image is saved and added to the image metadata, but only if it is
different from the existing description. When a new image is put down into the Newspilot
editorial system the photographer state several parameters which will be added to the
metadata. The new image is then transferred to the Pickup archive for later usage [Eklund,
2005].

When the advertisements are set in the current newspaper’s layout, the pages are sent to the
editorial department. Here the editorial staff starts to compile the newspaper of tomorrow
using the layout software InDesign from Adobe. The staff extracts articles and images from
the editorial system, in this case Newspilot (and Pickup for older images). Along with the
content produced in-house, there are several sources of external content that have their
respective place in the newspaper edition. The external content is delivered in different ways
depending on what type of content it is and from which supplier [Kjellin, 2005].
The newspaper has predefined number of pages for each day of the week. The maximum
number of pages is decided from what the printing house can handle. When all the intended
content is placed, it sometimes occurs that there could be a odd empty spot on some of the
pages. If this happens the newspaper uses their own advertisements to for example recruit
new subscribers. These advertisements are often called plugs [Jonsson, 2005].

Parallel to the editorial work, the tracking system of Newspilot monitors every event. When
the editorial department is finished with the layout of the newspaper it is sent to the printing
house.

3.4.2.3 Imposition and printing
To get the pages in the correct order in the finished newspaper the single pages must be
placed in a specific order on the printing plates. This is called impositioning. When the